Tree Tuesday Sequoia Style Part #2

Hello everyone, welcome to Tree Tuesday Sequoia Style Part #2 of a multi part Tree Tuesday series

This week we will be leaving the Playground and traveling along the forest road that winds down through the trees and takes you to the Duck Pond.

Image of the playground bandstand with cathedral trees in the background form part #1

Historical Note

In 1895 Bartlin and Henrietta Glatt donated this last stand of tall trees to the City of Eureka for what would become "Forest Park" as it was originally named and latter changed to Sequoia Park.
Although logging did occur in the park prior to it's donation to the city, there is sill old growth standing in the gulch areas of the park. Sequoia Park sits on 67 acres of old and second growth redwoods(also Fur and occasional Spruce) with a 5 acre Zoo & Garden area on the North Eastern front.
The Zoo was founded in 1904 and holds title as the first Zoo in California.
Not many places have a park like this in the middle of town. O.o

Lets get started. As you drive up the frontage road past the Zoo you come to this drive and gate.
The park is open to vehicle traffic from 8 am 4 pm and foot traffic from dawn to dusk.
Also a note, DO NOT take a RV down this very narrow road, you will not make it and dragging you backward, uphill, off the hairpin turn your going to get stuck on will cost $$$$



OK we are now on the road past the gate, we are going to the left. This road is for park maintenance vehicles and foot traffic only. It runs behind the Zoo area and around to the Stone Fountain where the duck pond road exits onto Glatt Street.

As we move along the road along the back of the playground you can see the picnicking/BBQ area, the little building is a service building for events and contains kitchen equipment and acts as a covered service area( and sometimes a bar).

These two images taken at an earlier date in the evening as the picnicking area was booked for an event and was full of people and cars. All the other images taken mid morning around 10 am.

Just beyond this small parking area is the road as it leaves the playground and starts through the forest, the bandstand (first post picture) is about 50 yards behind us.

As we head off into the forest along the road, photo opportunities abound.
All the following shots taken from the road. There are paths that run all through the trees but I have limited this post to the road( long enough as it is lol )




Pictured here is one of the old stumps that dot the park. These stumps are old as there hasn't been any logging here for over a 100 years. Most have huckleberry bushes growing out of them.

Looking back the way we came.



As we continue along the road there are 360 degree photo opportunities every few feet. The photos here are just taken from the forest road, I haven't gone into the trees or done any close up work. There are 1000's of images to be made here.







This is an interesting feature, the big bulge on the side of that tree is a giant burl, highly prized for it's birds eye and lace grain wood. Unfortunately some years ago the park was vandalized over a period of weeks and many of these burls were cut off and taken. :(






Over the years there have been several severe wind storms, the last one occurred in 2005 and took down trees all over the county as well as here in the park. When one of the big ones comes down you feel it. I've experienced that a few times as I grew up next to this park.




These are a couple of the trails that run through the forest.



As we peek down this hill we can now see a glimpse of or destination the duck pond area.

The last stretch down into the pond is steeper than the rest of the road and then there is the RV eating hairpin turn here.

Standing on the hairpin looking back up into the forest.

Coming out of the hairpin turn and looking down the final stretch to the Duck Pond and the end of part #2.
Next week in part #3 we will explore the Duck Pond area and the areas behind the duck pond that have some of the biggest trees in the park, a rhododendron glen, a giant fallen tree, and a few other oddities that are down here.

Pleas join me next week for Tree Tuesday Part #3 at the Duck Pond.

Flower for @dswigle

This post and all the others in this series dedicated to the memory of Bill the Chimp, RIP buddy

Although it's been many years since you passed you are still remembered and missed, was also a treat finding you in my back yard every once in a wile . Bill got out of his enclosure every so often and my Mom must have got a call about once a month or so from the zoo checking to see if Bill was in the giant cherry tree in our back yard again. We were on a short call list as he seemed to favor 2 or 3 locations when flying the coup. He was quite the Houdini and had a taste for cherries.

You can check out Bill's remarkable story here Photo by Gretchen Ziegler

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All images original, by me. In this case with my Cannon EOS Rebel T6.
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